# What is your favorite poem? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 21, 2004, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401 "2004-05-21T18:37:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![GopherGod72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f0a364/32.png) [@GopherGod72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GopherGod72)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/61 "2004-05-23T01:21:53Z")
Alone From childhood’s hour I have not been As others were; I have not seen As others saw; I could not bring My passions from a common spring. From the same source I have not taken My sorrow; I could not awaken My heart to joy at the same tone; And all I loved, I loved alone. Then- in my childhood, in the dawn Of a most stormy life- was drawn From every depth of good and ill The mystery which binds me still: From the torrent, or the fountain, From the red cliff of the mountain, From the sun that round me rolled In its autumn tint of gold, From the lightning in the sky As it passed me flying by, From the thunder and the storm, And the cloud that took the form (When the rest of Heaven was blue) Of a demon in my view. Edgar Allan Poe * * * also… This is Just to Say I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox and which you were probably saving for breakfast Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold William Carlos Williams ---
**Author:** ![nocturnal\_tick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3d9bf3/32.png) [@nocturnal\_tick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nocturnal_tick)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/62 "2004-05-23T13:10:23Z")
> [@GopherGod72](#): > > I have eaten > the plums > that were in > the icebox > > and which > you were probably > saving > for breakfast > > Forgive me > they were delicious > so sweet > and so cold > > William Carlos Williams This was in a movie, or a TV show, or something but where have I heard this? Somebody help me out. ---
**Author:** ![ChristmasEve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/97f17d/32.png) [@ChristmasEve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChristmasEve)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/63 "2004-05-23T17:01:25Z")
Of the poems previously mentioned, count me as another fan of Prufrock, and also _The Naming of Parts_: \*And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers They call it easing the Spring. \* To this list I’d add Yeats’ “He wishes for the cloths of heaven”: \*Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths, Enwrought with golden and silver light, The blue and the dim and the dark cloths Of night and light and the half-light, I would spread the cloths under your feet: \* It was one of the poems selected for the London Underground’s Poems on the Underground (pasted up alongside the advertisements in tube trains), and I remember the almost visceral shiver of losing the smelly, sweaty surroundings to something of such stately elegance. My stepfather often quoted from Wordsworth’s “On Westminster Bridge”, and it still reminds me of childhood adventures: _This City now doth like a garment wear The beauty of the morning: silent, bare, Ships, towers, domes, theatres, and temples lie Open unto the fields and to the sky; All bright and glittering in the smokeless air._ ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2004, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/64 "2004-05-23T17:12:16Z")
Only two mentions of the Raven? Is considering it your favorite that much of a cliche? What about the Jabberwocky? Yeah. I don’t read poetry much. Obvious, huh? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/65 "2004-05-25T17:05:10Z")
One of my all-time favourites is “The Second Coming” - chock-full of memorable lines: The Second Coming – W. B. Yeats Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all convictions, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity. Surely some revelation is at hand; Surely the Second Coming is at hand. The Second Coming! Hardly are those words out When a vast image out of Spiritus Mundi Troubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desert A shape with lion body and the head of a man, A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun, Is moving its slow thighs, while all about it Reel shadows of the indignant desert birds. The darkness drops again; but now I know That twenty centuries of stony sleep Were vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle, And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/66 "2004-05-25T21:35:33Z")
Generally speaking, I am not a big fan of poetry, but I do have a few favorites. Langston Hughes, “The South”: “The lazy, laughing South / With blood on its mouth.” Also, Wilfred Owen, “Dulce et Decorum Est”. If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,– My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. Gets more relevant every day. ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/67 "2004-05-25T23:32:30Z")
I think I have to say right off that my favorite poem is whatever one I happen to be reading or the last one I read – even if it’s some miserable thing written by some lovesick fourteen-year-old, wailing away at the injustice of life. It usually takes a while for me to decide if I love the poem itself or the idea of poetry. So, the poems following are the ones that I’ve digested, rather than chewed and spit out, the flavor not being quite what I expected. [_Funeral Blues_](http://www.johnhannah.net/fwaf.html) by WH Auden. For this poem alone (well, and Gareth) I love the movie Four Weddings and a Funeral. Which probably means my eyes should be plucked out or something. _The Oubit_ by [Charles Kingsley](http://www.gutenberg.net/1/1/0/6/11064/11064-h/11064-h.htm) Scroll down about halfway. It’s after A Christmas Carol but before Three Fishers. I like this, not because of the meaning behind it, but because it was the first poem in an “accent” I read. I know there’s another name for them, but, bless my boots, I can’t remember it. Y’know, like the kind written by [Robert Burns](http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poet42.html). From Shakespeare: [O Mistres Mine Where are you Roming?](http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem1848.html) and [When my love swears that she is made of truth](http://www.artofeurope.com/shakespeare/sha11.htm) and [Not marble nor the gilded monuments](http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/shakespeare/not_marble_nor_gilded.html). And can I just say [I love Pablo Neruda](http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/Pablo_Neruda) and leave it at that? I read a lot. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/68 "2004-05-26T00:13:35Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Actually, lines 10 and 11 in this copy. Read the note for line 10: > > [University of Toronto Libraries](http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/display/poem1904.html) I’m still not sure what you mean by “altered”. Are you talking about the fact that Ozymandias was so vain that he assumed his statue would stand forever, and now it’s almsot buried in sand in an antique land? Or is there something more subtle than that going on? ---
**Author:** ![Estilicon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/848f3c/32.png) [@Estilicon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Estilicon)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/69 "2004-05-26T01:17:41Z")
My favourite poem was written by uruguayan poet Mario Benedetti. It’s name is “Corazón Coraza” and you’ll have to speak spanish to enjoy it: Porque te tengo y no porque te pienso porque la noche está de ojos abiertos porque la noche pasa y digo amor porque has venido a recoger tu imagen y eres mejor que todas tus imágenes porque eres linda desde el pie hasta el alma porque eres buena desde el alma a mí porque te escondes dulce en el orgullo pequeña y dulce corazón coraza porque eres mía porque no eres mía porque te miro y muero y peor que muero si no te miro amor si no te miro porque tú siempre existes dondequiera pero existes mejor donde te quiero porque tu boca es sangre y tienes frío tengo que amarte amor tengo que amarte aunque esta herida duela como dos aunque te busque y no te encuentre y aunque la noche pase y yo te tenga y no. A close second belongs to a book called “Twenty love songs and a desperate song” by chilean poet, and nobel prize of literature Pablo Neruda (the one of “Il Postino”). it’s poem number 20 and you can enjoy both the original and a good translation [here](http://www.boppin.com/poets/neruda.html) ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/70 "2004-05-26T01:36:24Z")
Now hollow fires burn out to black, And lights are guttering low. Square your shoulders, lift your pack, And leave your friends, and go. Oh never fear, man, nought’s to dread, Look not left nor right: In all the endless road you tread There’s nothing but the night. —A.E. Houseman, “A Shropshire Lad” ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/71 "2004-05-26T02:06:45Z")
Anything at all by [Philip Larkin](http://plagiarist.com/poetry/poets/21/), especially [Aubade](http://plagiarist.com/poetry/389/), [This Be the Verse](http://plagiarist.com/poetry/1053/), or [Wants](http://plagiarist.com/poetry/4890/). But my favorite of all time (on a happier note) has got to be Yeats’s [A Drinking Song](http://plagiarist.com/poetry/1349/): Short, simple, perfect, and irresistible. You should all learn it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/72 "2004-05-26T02:25:53Z")
> [@](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by CalMeacham > Actually, lines 10 and 11 in this copy. Read the note for line 10: > > [http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/...y/poem1904.html](http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/...y/poem1904.html) > I’m still not sure what you mean by “altered”. Are you talking about the fact that Ozymandias was so vain that he assumed his statue would stand forever, and now it’s almsot buried in sand in an antique land? Or is there something more subtle than that going on? Pretty much – Rameses’ statement of brash arrogance (which Shelleyaltered, as you can see from the page I cited) which I can recast less poetically as “Look at what _I_ accomplished – there’s no way you could do as well, no matter how mighty!” assumes an entirely different aspect after several milleia have obliterated his works, as if Time is saying “Yes, look upon even the mightiest works of mere man.” Yes, I kno it’s irony. But it’s ironic because the meaning the modern Traveller takes from it has altered from Rameses’ original intent. If anything, the modern viewer has even more reason to despair than Rameses intended. When the exhibition of the artifacts of Rameses II toured th US, this poem was placed at the end of the exhibit (I saw it in Provo Utah, then later at the Museum of Science in Boston). The poem was also used to good effect in the story “Ozymandias” in one of the Harlan Ellison-edited anthologies “Dangerous Visions” ---
**Author:** ![SkeptiJess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea666f/32.png) [@SkeptiJess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkeptiJess)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/73 "2004-05-26T11:51:14Z")
I like lots of poetry – mostly older stuff, I’m afraid. I’m hopelessly low-brow. My dad’s all-time favorite is [The Cremation of Sam McGee](http://www.wordfocus.com/wordactcremation.html). I like that one too, and most of Service’s other stuff, as well. I like lots of Rudyard Kipling – particularly [The Ballad of East and West](http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/67.html) I absolutely love masses of Edna St. Vincent Millay – it’s almost impossible to choose a favorite there. I’ll say, [Alms](http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/ednamillay/7262), because it’s one of the best poems ever written about heartbreak. But my absolute favorite is Tennyson’s _Ulysses_. ---
**Author:** ![Gail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Gail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gail)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/74 "2004-05-26T12:12:55Z")
My favorite poem is _We Real Cool (The Pool Players Seven at the Golden Shovel)_ by Gwendolyn Brooks. I like the rhythm and the imagery. [http://www.coldbacon.com/poems/werealcool.html](http://www.coldbacon.com/poems/werealcool.html) I don’t know if this link will work. But anyway, the poem is very short. It starts “We real cool. We left school.” and ends with “We die soon.” ---
**Author:** ![WernhamHogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/75 "2004-05-26T12:22:09Z")
[url=http://plagiarist.com/poetry/688/]“The Birches” by Robert Frost ---
**Author:** ![WernhamHogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/76 "2004-05-26T12:23:33Z")
Make that [“The Birches” by Robert Frost](http://plagiarist.com/poetry/688/) ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Death](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ecccb3/32.png) [@Evil\_Death](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Death)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401/77 "2004-05-26T12:28:21Z")
> [@emekthian](#): > > [Abdul Abulbul Amir](http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/358.html) Judas Priest - there’s a _clean_ version? [Abdul Abulbul Amir](http://www.mining.wits.ac.za/abdul.htm) (WARNING: that link is not worksafe.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-poem/246401.md?page=3)